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Why does the lord ruler have such powerful Allomancy. from what I understand compounding only affects feruchemy. he’s more powerful than a pure mistborn. so I was thinking is it possible his metal mines could’ve also been hemalurgic spikes to make his Allomancy more powerful. in the final empire it was said that his metal mines were piercing his body and in the hero of ages  it was also said that he was able to hear, ruined speak to him which requires a in bedded Spike

Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Blue-phoenix186 said:

Why does the lord ruler have such powerful Allomancy. from what I understand compounding only affects feruchemy. he’s more powerful than a pure mistborn. so I was thinking is it possible his metal mines could’ve also been hemalurgic spikes to make his Allomancy more powerful. in the final empire it was said that his metal mines were piercing his body and in the hero of ages  it was also said that he was able to hear, ruined speak to him which requires a in bedded Spike

I believe originally Brandon had intended for Rashek to use a Lerasium bead to gain Allomancy and then rely on some unknown Feruchemical effect (likely nicrosil Compounding) to boost it.

However, later this was retconned into him simply being extraordinarily powerful by virtue of using the WoA to make himself an Allomancer.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/246-alloy-of-law-17th-shard-qa/#e5494

Chaos (paraphrased)

I continued to ask about the Lord Ruler and his Allomantic strength.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

There's an upper bound to the amount of power you can get from being a savant. Brandon said that, obviously, the Lord Ruler wasn't using duralumin and Elend could only get that powerful in Soothing using duralumin. He implied that there was a way to Compound to enhance Allomancy.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/103-salt-lake-city-comic-con-2014/#e1039

Questioner

What's lerasium?

Brandon Sanderson

That is the bead of metal that Elend finds at the end of Book 2, that Vin finds and gives to Elend.

Questioner

Oh so there were only two and the Lord Ruler kind of left it there?

Brandon Sanderson

There actually were a bunch of them, and the first Mistborn came from people who ate that. The Lord Ruler took one for himself and he left others there to use if he needed them.

 

Footnote: Brandon has since canonized that Rashek used the power of the Well of Ascension to make himself into a Mistborn, not a bead of lerasium. Whether that contradicts this, or he used the bead for another purpose is unknown.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/263-chris-king-interview/#e9889

Chris King

Did the Lord Ruler use lerasium to gain his super Allomantic abilities or did he grant that to himself with the Well's power? If he used the bead, does he count as one of the nine original Allomancers that Sazed mentions?

Brandon Sanderson

Excellent question. He did not use the bead. He-- In all of this he granted himself basically, he rebuilt himself to be extremely powerful and he did not use one of the beads.

It was also said that Rashek had spikes at one point, but this seems to also have been changed for some reason, though it could simply have been Brandon forgetting a relatively small detail.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/141-mistborn-the-final-empire-annotations/#e2479

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Thirty-Eight - Part Two

You were probably expecting Marsh's return–at least, you probably were when you read the chapter where he "died." Making Inquisitors via Hemalurgy requires killing other people (see book three for an explanation of the process) so there's a lot of mess involved.

Anyway, I planned for his return here. I wish, again, I could have done more with him. There was another whole book going on with him being watched by the Inquisitors–him thinking that he'd earned their suspicion when they were really just impressed with him and planning to make him one of them. That's how it usually works with Inquisitors–they grab a new recruit, usually an older one, and "draft" him into their ranks before one of the other Cantons has a chance to corrupt him too much. So, they were looking to make another Inquisitor, and Marsh happened to be the most promising recruit training in Luthadel at the time.

He never understood how far his infiltration would take him, or what it would end up costing him. The payoff is that he figured out how to kill Inquisitors–they were all built to have a weakness, so that the Lord Ruler would have power over them if he needed it. Pull out the right spike, and they come tumbling down.

Marsh's plan to kill the Lord Ruler is a good one too. Unfortunately, the Lord Ruler's power doesn't come only from Hemalurgy, but from other things as well. If he'd pulled off the bracelets instead. . . .

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/69-shadows-of-self-release-party/#e6111

Questioner

Why in the world would the Lord Ruler spike himself?

Questioner

No.

Brandon Sanderson

...Because he needed to give himself the powers that he didn't have. He could have done it like-- gained the knowledge but the power was gone so fast he actually needed to-- Well no no no, the spikes, the spikes, the spikes. So, it doesn't matter if he was spiked because he was hiding the metals inside himself so people couldn't Push or Pull on them. That's the real reason he was doing that. Does that make sense?

Brandon Sanderson

Metal that's inside of him--

Questioner

Ruin influenced him, what did the spiking do?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, the metals that were stuck through him were so people couldn’t Push or Pull on them. If they were outside his body people would know he was a Feruchemist. Which is the very thing he was-- so he would stick the metals inside of himself to hide them.

Questioner

And he did that as Hemalurgic spikes?

Brandon Sanderson

I'd have to go back and look because-- Lord Ruler is he spiked or has he just got--

Isaac Stewart

I thought he was... spiked but I can't remem--

Brandon Sanderson

You're asking something that I wrote 12 years ago.

Isaac Stewart

Peter, was the Lord Ruler spiked?

Brandon Sanderson

Lord Ruler was spiked, right?  Or is it just--

Peter Ahlstrom

I don't think so.

Brandon Sanderson

--piereced with metalminds, right? They're not actual spikes, just metalminds.

And I want to ask the Sharders on there [the recorder] about that Lord Ruler question, because I didn’t think he was spiked but--

Isaac Stewart

I think I recall him having the bands with spikes in them?

 

Edited by Trusk'our
Posted (edited)
On 2/7/2025 at 8:52 PM, Blue-phoenix186 said:

Why does the lord ruler have such powerful Allomancy. from what I understand compounding only affects feruchemy. he’s more powerful than a pure mistborn. so I was thinking is it possible his metal mines could’ve also been hemalurgic spikes to make his Allomancy more powerful. in the final empire it was said that his metal mines were piercing his body and in the hero of ages  it was also said that he was able to hear, ruined speak to him which requires a in bedded Spike

His metal minds did pierce his body, to help prevent them from being pushed or pulled, but they were not hemalurgic spikes (and didn't pierce bind points - much less wanting to allow others to control him through Hemalurgy, the way he controlled Kandra and Koloss). He was strong with Allomancy because he didn't get his allomancy through a Lerasium bead (he used those as bribes) - he granted himself Allomancy while holding the power of the Well.

Ruin didn't need a person to have a Hemalurgic Spike to talk/influence others - he was influencing Sazed through his Metalmind piercings as well (reinforcing his despair over Tindwyl) - any invested metal piercing was enough to allow some influence (even if less effective than a Hemalurgic spike would be).

There's also the Teaser from Brandon that fans refer to as "reverse compounding" because he has implied there is a way to compound for Allomancy as well (we just don't know it yet).

WoBs:

Spoiler
Quote

Dalenthas

Did the Lord Ruler have any Hemalurgic spikes in him? It would seem he'd need to for Ruin to influence him, but it wasn't mentioned. Or did his bracers work as spikes?

Brandon Sanderson

His arm bracers, which pierced his skin, were his spikes.

Footnote: Brandon later clarified this. The Lord Ruler's bracers pierced his skin to provide additional protection from Allomancy, but they were not hemalurgic spikes.
Hero of Ages Q&A - Time Waster's Guide (Oct. 15, 2008)

Quote

Questioner

Why in the world would the Lord Ruler spike himself?

Brandon Sanderson

...Because he needed to give himself the powers that he didn't have. He could have done it like-- gained the knowledge but the power was gone so fast he actually needed to-- Well no no no, the spikes, the spikes, the spikes. So, it doesn't matter if he was spiked because he was hiding the metals inside himself so people couldn't Push or Pull on them. That's the real reason he was doing that. Does that make sense?

Questioner

No.

Brandon Sanderson

Metal that's inside of him--

Questioner

Ruin influenced him, what did the spiking do?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, the metals that were stuck through him were so people couldn’t Push or Pull on them. If they were outside his body people would know he was a Feruchemist. Which is the very thing he was-- so he would stick the metals inside of himself to hide them.

Questioner

And he did that as Hemalurgic spikes?

Brandon Sanderson

I'd have to go back and look because-- Lord Ruler is he spiked or has he just got--

Isaac Stewart

I thought he was... spiked but I can't remem--

Brandon Sanderson

You're asking something that I wrote 12 years ago.

Isaac Stewart

Peter, was the Lord Ruler spiked?

Brandon Sanderson

Lord Ruler was spiked, right?  Or is it just--

Peter Ahlstrom

I don't think so.

Brandon Sanderson

--piereced with metalminds, right? They're not actual spikes, just metalminds.

And I want to ask the Sharders on there [the recorder] about that Lord Ruler question, because I didn’t think he was spiked but--

Isaac Stewart

I think I recall him having the bands with spikes in them?


Shadows of Self release party (Oct. 5, 2015)

 

Quote

Chaos (paraphrased)

I continued to ask about the Lord Ruler and his Allomantic strength.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

There's an upper bound to the amount of power you can get from being a savant. Brandon said that, obviously, the Lord Ruler wasn't using duralumin and Elend could only get that powerful in Soothing using duralumin. He implied that there was a way to Compound to enhance Allomancy.

Alloy of Law 17th Shard Q&A (Nov. 5, 2011)

Quote

dyring

A Coinshot able to store weight can, as you showed us with Wax Push in a ridiculously powerful manner, as the weight/mass is the largest factor which controls the Push strength.

I'm wondering if the same can be done with soothing(or rioting). If you where to increase your identity, that may/should increase your emotional imprint(or whatever you might call it), would your soothings/riotings become vastly more powerful in a similar way as weight makes steelpushing more powerful?

And if it does, is this how the Lord Ruler improved his Soothing in such a spectacular fashion?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, the Lord Ruler--don't forget--could compound any Allomancy he wanted. That creates some crazy effects. As for what you discuss in your first question, I don't want to touch too much on Identity yet as I am saving it for later books. Talking too much here might undermine my ability to reveal interesting and cool things in books when the time is right. I like your theory, and it has merit, but I'm not going to give you a yes or a no as it delves too much into what Identity, as an attribute, can do.

17th Shard Forum Q&A (Sept. 26, 2012)

Quote

theFinisher4Ever

Was the Lord Ruler using Feruchemy + Allomancy to Soothe all of the people around him? Or was he, as I like to think, flaring for so long that he became a Soother Savant?

Brandon Sanderson

He lived long enough and used his metals enough (particularly Soothing) to become nearly a savant in every area, if not a full savant.

/r/fantasy AMA 2013 (April 15, 2013)

Quote

Leinton (paraphrased)

Did Rashek use the Well or a bead of lerasium to become a Mistborn?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

He didn't know at first, I told him there were interviews with him saying both, and he eventually answered with "I'm canonizing it as he used the Well".

Firefight San Diego signing (Jan. 20, 2015)

 

Hope that helps

Edited by Treamayne
SPAG

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